Examination of James Steile

fol. 76v

1564

The examinacion of James Steile of the Grange neere Toome in the County of Antrim Cooper taken before vs at Colerane the 14th day of March 1652
<53> Who being duely sworne & examined saith That vpon Saturday <A> the 23th day of October 1641 Neile oge ô Quin a tennante of Sir Thomas Staples neere Lissan came vnto the Towne of Lissan about the Sunsetting with about 80: or 100: men vnder his Command & giveing out the Spaniards were comeing seised vpon Sir Thomas Staples house & that night robbed all the English houses in the Towne of all their goods but spared the Scotch there giveing out that they would not meddle with them That they made those English they had robbed thresh their Corne & doe the rest of their worke, the Scots who were their neighbours & not as then robbed releiveing the English with victuall That very shortly after they begunn by degrees to plunder & robb the Scotts in Lissan of their goods & after a while tooke all they had & made them their Servants or slaves to worke for them That dureing that time he often did see James McIveagh a tennant of Sir Thomas Staples ranting & drinkeing in Lissan That the said Neile oge ô Quin & his sonnes Owen ô Quin & Neece ô Quin with the men <B> commanded by them then tooke & kept Sir Thomas Staples lady & children Prisoners in lissan And that there being a fight at Garvagh in December 1641 where the Brittish & Scotch were routed & killed by the Irish. After the said Neile oge ô Quin & his said sonnes & mens returne from that fight they stript the English & Scotch in Lissan (whose goods formerly they had taken) of their rayment & weareing apparell & tooke them out of their houses makeing them believe they would carry them to a safe place & after they had Carryed them short of a quarter of a mile from their houses the men who were commanded by the said Neile oge ô Quin & his said sonnes murdred them & that the number of those Who were there murdred were about twenty; but their names who

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fol. 77r

1565

who were murdred there that this Examinante knew & can now remember, only is James Young John Armstrong John Younge Andrew Carter & his wife & his two Children That this Examinante fled & diverse others who then fled & hid themselves in holes & Woods & bushes <C> were afterwards killed as they were found, that diverse brittish who were imployed by the Irish (for at that time the Irish would none of them labour or worke) were after their threshing or labour done, murdred by them. That this Examinante was a Cowheard to one Owen ô Cannill a soldier of the said Neile oge ô Quin, who because a Cow of his [ ] was accidentally drowned would have killed this Examinant had he not fled & escaped vnto a Priest called O Donnelly who saved his life to cutt wood make fires & keepe his Cowes for about one yeere & an halfe, vntill that at a certaine time the Scotch Army went over the Bann he escaped vnto the Scotts. And this Examinante further saith that he hath often heard the Irish say & talke that the said James McIveagh runn Andrew Young through with his sword by his owne fyre side in his the said Andrews owne house & killed him. And alsoe this Examinante saith That his father James Steill & his Mother & his five Sisters & a brother together with three Englishmen & maney more to the number of threescore were at severall times murdred neere & about Lissan by some of the Irish whom he believes to be Neile oge ô Quin or his men for that he had the cheife Command about Lissan, And this Examinante saith That the Irish saved few or none alive of the Brittish but Carpenters Smiths the fforgemen of Sir Thomas Staples Iron works & such Artificers as could doe them service. And further he saith not.

Tho: Coote
Rich: Brasier Major

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